HELP MY OSCAR IS BURNING HERSELF TO DEATH
- Thread starter Cloudk
- Start date
GreenThumb13;5033109; said:
oh okay you scared me
LOLare those results after your 70% water change?
nitrates are high.
I wouldn't worry about the ammonia yet, as it can be hard to read the .25, just make sure it stabilizes back out to a solid 0 soon. Can add prime to make ammo nontoxic to the fishies for 48hrs.
80 ppm nitrate is much too high. While a fish is healing you are going to want to maintain the nitrates at 10 ppm at the highest, and normally you are going to want to keep them under 20ppm. Keep an eye on the water parameters on the hospital tank too. You want to make sure your filter is established so she's not being exposed to toxic ammonia and nitrite while trying to heal. Going forward you are going to have to start timing your water changes so that you do a large change 70-80% every time the nitrates get to 20ppm. So for reference, I have one large oscar in a 55 gallon tank. My nitrates get to about 20 ppm every Sunday at which point I do an 80% water change which brings the nitrates back down to 0. I don't know about turtles but I've heard they are very messy which leads me to believe you may have to start doing twice weekly large water changes to keep your nitrates below 20ppm but you will have to test the water to come up with your own schedule.
With those water parameters, it is going to be a tough healing process. Those results show that the tank is definitely not cycled. I have never used Melafix, so I would wait for others to chime in or agree, but I would be doing large water changes every other day to keep all of your water parameters in check. Bad water conditions are an injured fish' worst nightmare. If not properly reduced, I would imagine it will greatly decrease the healing time. Good Luck!
This is more like a heater burn:
This is more like a heater burn:
That's w/ the 2tbs aquarium salt and 2tsp melafix. I have a filter that currently only has somekind of weird thing it calls a bio-scrubber, box says it "cultivates aerobic bacteria, eleminating toxic ammonia, and nitrites before water cascades back into aquarium". Its a Tetra Whisper 40I. Took out the carbon bags like the Metafix bottle said. But she has lost her previously voratious appetite. She used to get very excited when she saw the food bag, now she just hides. Is this normal? I have 2 pieces of rock in there for her(its clean). No substrate. Just 2 big rocks.
Can someone tell me the optimum water peramiters for both a hospital tank and the main tank? I can't find anything online. Thanks
0-ammonia, 0-nitrite, 20ppm or less on nitrate, I don't think pH is a big deal as long as it's constant...
Your fish is showing a lack of appetite because she is being poisoned by the ammonia and nitrite in the tank. You have to do water changes every day to keep the ammonia and nitrite as close to zero as you can. That tetra whisper is not nearly enough filtration for an oscar, even in a 30 gallon hospital tank. You need to move one of the filters from the turtle tank over to the hospital tank immediately or buy another filter. Get a big sponge filter if you can't afford another filter. They cost 10 bucks plus another 20 for an air pump. All the medications in the world won't help that fish if you don't get the ammonia and nitrite to zero quickly.
I am planning on buying a 2nd fx5 for my big tank. Can anyone suggest a good media combo for them? Like, should one be filled w/ bio max, or filled w/ carbon & ammonia media. Then have the other full of sponges? Or even the normal mix for both? Thanks all of u for continuing to help me have healthy animals
